


Limbo

by Gepardo



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen, Limbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-30
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2018-01-10 13:19:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gepardo/pseuds/Gepardo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumplestiltskin is dead</p>
            </blockquote>





	Limbo

Rumplestiltskin looked away from the mirror and blinked slowly, trying to dissipate the cobwebs and haze that had over taken his mind. Was he Rumplestiltskin? Or was he Mr. Gold? Maybe he was just Rum. Icy dread settled on at the bottom of his stomach at the thought of being The Dark One, but it was cut down by the fury of being called Crocodile, and then gently warmed into calmness when he tried to identified himself as Goldstiltskin as a swan had briefly called him, once…somewhere. Grandpa Gold! He was that! Right? He blinked a few more times, no, he was Papa, and heat bloomed in his chest when he heard a giggled and the called of Rumple somewhere in the darkness of his mind.

His eyes returned to the mirror cradle in his hands and he smiled at the faces it showed him. They weren’t always happy, and certain blue eyes didn’t sparkle like they used to, but they were alive. So very much alive. He felt a touch at his jaw and looked away, once again going through an existential panic of not remembering who he was. Something called him Coward, but it was quickly shushed as the hand slipped under his chin and pulled his face upwards, making his eyes met blazing blue orbs, not eyes, but just orbs, glowing in the dark void of a hood. Death, his mind supplied.

Oh sure, named _that_.

He breath in once, and realize he hadn’t breath in a long time, and the first breath is almost choking. Looking away, he register the white ever expanding space of Limbo. How long had he been waiting for his judgment? How long had he been looking into the mirror? What was his name?! He found his chin once again trapped between gloved fingers, that did so very little to hide the obvious skeleton fingertips under, and his eyes meeting Death’s.

Speak, his mind calls, one of many voices, a peasant trying to be brave, even as he is crying. Is he crying? He can’t tell because those blazing dots in the darkness are consuming his thoughts just as he has them. He opens his mouth, but Death speaks first.

“If you could live that one day once again, what would you do?” The voice is so ethereal and monotone and overwhelming with emotions all at the same time, and for a moment he fears for his sanity as his brain tries to make sense of the words.

The question of what day Death is speaking of hangs at the tip of his tongue, but then his whole body stiffens, painfully so, as he suddenly remembers his death, and each every little seconds of the hours before. For a small second, he ponders where his father, no, Peter Pan has gone, but that soon dies down as Death’s question over takes his entire existence. His name matters little right now.

His survival instincts try to assert themselves, his preservation to stay alive, but they seemed to override by whatever had overtaken him that day. He breaths in once again, his lungs filled with air that is too cold, waking him up further. “…I…” His voice sounds wrong to his ears, like a heart broken sob. Is he crying? “ I….I would kiss her longer…”

Belle, oh his dear Belle. He recalls the kiss they share that day, a little peck that he so dearly needed to take a little of her courage into his own while she was overflowed by his love. Because he needed a little more bravery to keep being around Henry while he wore his father’s face. And he remembers, he remembers kissing her, not a little peck, but long kiss like the one a the castle, or the forest, a kiss that went long and slow until his lungs burned for air, and even then the kiss would keep going and going. That wasn’t what had happen that day, and yet he remembers it.

“…and….and I would hold him a little tighter.” Bae, no, Neal….Fire? Fire was good, but a bit stupid. His child, his boy, he had been bottling too much, so much like him. Too much like him. He had been startled by the embrace, for too long he stood limp and confuse before he returned it. He closed his eyes for a moment and now knew for sure he was sobbing like a wee child as he felt warmth pressing so dearly against his chest. His little boy. Oh Bae…

His eyes open, seeing Death’s blurry form for a moment as he tried to get himself in some sense of dignity. Death seemed to be waiting like an old friend he never really had. Perhaps Hopper, if he had tried, maybe even senseless Charming. He breath in and out, looking towards that mirror, that mirror he had been given while waiting for his judgment. Death had been so kind to give him a way to keep watching them.

“And….“ He gasped softly, and Death seemed even a little surprise that he had a third request. Because that’s what they were, weren’t they? Requests, wishes, a little bit of magic even he couldn’t phantom it’s price. “And…one last…one last I love you…“ He breath harshly as he felt another sob wreck through him.

In his last goodbyes, he hadn’t spare a thought to his grandson, although the full act had been….no, he wouldn’t lie to himself, he wanted Belle and Bae safe. But Henry, dear lords, he had nearly killed the boy, because he wanted to live when he had centuries and Henry only had, but a bit beyond a decade…. and barely saw him before he died, back in his own body. He deserve one last memento, one last memory of his grandfather that wasn’t death, even if he couldn’t remember.

Death seemed to grant it, because he felt a little lighter. Getting up was still laborious, and Death offered no help, but his ankle didn’t bother him. “Now…now what?”

And that voice that resounds too soft and too loud and just right calls out. “We find out where you go.” He is offered a hand, and he takes it with very little hesitation.


End file.
